Mental health and mental health help-seeking behaviors among first-generation voluntary African migrants: A systematic review.

PURPOSE: Mental health challenges are highly prevalent in African migrants. However, understanding of mental health outcomes in first-generation voluntary African migrants is limited, despite the unique challenges faced by this migrant subgroup. This review aimed to synthesize the literature to understand the mental health challenges, help-seeking behavior, and the relationship between mental health and mental health help-seeking behavior in first-generation voluntary African migrants living outside Africa. METHODS: Medline Complete, EMBASE, CINAHL Complete, and APA PsychINFO were searched for studies published between January 2012 to December 2023. Retrieved articles were processed, data from selected articles were extracted and synthesized to address the study aims, and included studies were evaluated for risk of bias. RESULTS: Eight studies were included, including four quantitative and four qualitative studies, which focused on women with postnatal depression. Mental health challenges reported in the quantitative studies were depression, interpersonal disorders, and work-related stress. Risk (e.g., neglect from health professionals and lack of social/spousal support) and protective (e.g., sensitivity of community services and faith) factors associated with mental health were identified. Barriers (e.g., cultural beliefs about mental health and racial discrimination) and facilitators (sensitizing African women about mental health) of mental health help-seeking behavior were also identified. No significant relationship was reported between mental health and mental health help-seeking behavior, and the risk of bias results indicated some methodological flaws in the studies. CONCLUSION: This review shows the dearth of research focusing on mental health and help-seeking behavior in this subgroup of African migrants. The findings highlight the importance of African migrants, especially mothers with newborns, examining cultural beliefs that may impact their mental health and willingness to seek help. Receiving countries should also strive to understand the needs of first-generation voluntary African migrants living abroad and offer mental health support that is patient-centered and culturally sensitive.

Quality of life and depression among patients with high myopia in Nigeria: a cross sectional study.

AIM: To evaluate the quality of life (QOL) and level of depression among participants with high myopia in Nigeria and the demographic factors associated with these outcomes. METHODS: This cross-sectional study was conducted on 100 adult participants with high myopia (defined as refractive error ≤-5.00 D or worse, and uncorrected visual acuity worse than 6/18 in the better seeing eye) attending ophthalmology centres in Nigeria from 2 October 2021 to 30 August 2022. The means and standard deviations were calculated for each of the four domains of World Health Organization Quality of life scale (WHOQOL-BREF) using the transformed scores. The Beck Depression Inventory (BDI) scale was used to assess the level of depression. RESULTS: The highest and the lowest mean scores of WHOQOL-BREF domains were found for the psychological and physical health domains (mean percentage scores were 67.0 [95% confidence intervals (CI) 64.1-68.9] and 55.3 (95%CI 51.8-58.8, P<0.001), respectively. One-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) revealed significant differences in physical health with educational status (higher among those with tertiary education: mean difference 0.9, 95%CI -0.2-2.1; P=0.049), differences in psychological health with working status (higher among those who were working 1.2, 95%CI 0.3-2.1; P=0.012). Also, the result showed a statistically significant association between environmental health and marital status (higher among non-married: 1.7, 95%CI -0.9-2.3; P=0.012) while overall health was associated with place of residence (higher in urban areas: 2.3, 95%CI 1.2-3.5; P=0.024). For depression, one in every nine participants reported major depressive symptom, mostly younger people (aged 16-29 vs 30-49y: 17.0% vs 0, P=0.019), and slightly more women than men (14.3% vs 0, P=0.064). There were significant negative correlations between the depression scores and psychological health (r=-0.48, P<0.001), physical health (r=-0.29, P=0.002), social and relationship (r=-0.49, P<0.001), environmental (r=-0.48, P<0.001) and overall health (r=-0.49, P<0.001). CONCLUSION: People with high myopia have a relatively moderate QOL, but poor physical health, particularly the younger age group, and women who are more likely to experience clinically relevant depression. Eye care professionals should consider possible referrals for counselling for people with high myopia.